When the Time Comes
by notenoughpotter
Summary: The much-requested final addition to the "Bittersweet" series.  Claire's eighteen now, and she has some questions about the deeply guarded secrets held by the Founding Families of Mystic Falls.
1. Chapter 1

Author's note: This story is going to be SHORT...as in, five or six chapters. I did want to bring back my favorite version of the Salvatore family to celebrate the season 3 premiere.

Not trying to plug an old story, but this one will make more sense if you've read _Bittersweet _and _Echoes._

Enjoy!

Warnings: Mature - adult content, language, sensitive subject matter

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><p>Elena reached out and seized hold of the car keys off the accent table in the foyer just before her daughter's fingers closed around them. "Not so fast!" Elena cllutched the key ring to her chest. "Exactly where are you going this afternoon?"<p>

Claire's eyes halted mid-roll. "The boardinghouse."

Elena tilted her head and pursed her lips. "When?"

"Right after school."

Elena nodded. "We're not torturing you." Elena did allow herself to roll her eyes. "Since Jenna and Ric will be there, you can even invite Casen if you'd like."

Claire reached for the keys, but Elena tugged them out of reach. "Because I'm sure he wants to help set up for Jackson's wedding."

Dangling the keys from her fingertips, Elena answered her daughter. "If he wants to see you this weekend, that would be a yes." She dropped the car keys into Claire's outstretched hand.

"Is it really going to take all weekend?" Claire flinched as she adjusted her zebra-striped purse on her shoulder. She glanced up the stairs and frowned since her brother was nowhere to be seen. "Braydon, come on!"

"You were excited when Elisa asked you to be in the bridal party." Noting her daughter's tapping foot, Elena glanced down at her watch. "Everybody upstairs, you need to get moving. We leave for school in three minutes." She turned her attention back to Claire as Lily bounded down the stairs with her monkey-print backpack dangling precariously off one shoulder. "Pedicures tomorrow morning. Rehearsal at two. Rehearsal dinner at the Grill at six." Elena held up a finger as she ticked off each task.

"Are weddings always this complicated?"

"We might consider paying you to elope." Damon rounded the corner with a mug of coffee in his hand.

"Ric would agree with you." Elena reached out and took the offered mug. "In the Salvatore family, apparently so." She thought she'd skip telling her daughter the details of her wedding to Damon, since they involved too much time spent getting up close and personal with the toilet...and an unplanned pregnancy. Speaking of an unexpected arrival, Braydon began walking down the stairs.

"Braydon, can you see what you can do with the rest of them?" Elena knelt next to Lily and began to rebraid the end of one pigtail. "We're going to be late. Again." She shook her head.

"You'll just have to have a conference with the principal." Damon stepped behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. "Tonight while the two of you try to keep Jenna under control would probably be a good time." He nudged her hair off the back of her neck with his chin and he placed a kiss on the nape of her neck.

Elena leaned her head back onto his shoulder. "Jeremy said I've used my last _but I'm your sister_ excuse." She closed her eyes and relaxed into his embrace. "You coming home for lunch?"

"Is that what they're calling it these days?" His words were little more than a growl in her ear.

"Ew! Stop!" Claire waved her hands in front of her face. "Really, I get enough of that from Jackson and Elisa." She grimaced. "You should have heard them during the engagement pictures." Picking up her notebook and her laptop computer, she pointed up the stairs. "Can you tell him I'm outside?"

"Will do." Damon trailed his hand down Elena's waist. "To answer your question, yes, I think I'll be home for lunch. We have a Founder's Council meeting, but I'll be back after that."

"Founder's Council?" Elena pulled away from his hands and spun on her heel.

Damon shook his head. "Nothing like that. Just the regular quarterly meeting." The clock on the mantle chimed eight. "Of course, I'm going to miss it if I don't get going." He leaned in for a kiss, stroking Elena's hair as his lips left hers. "Definitely home for lunch." He leaned over and brushed a kiss atop his youngest daughter's head. "Bye sweetie." Standing back up, he hurried out the door.

Brayden took the stairs two at a time and landed next to his mother with a thud. Elena looked up at her son who seemed to somehow have inherited his uncle's height. "Everybody's ready but Em." He grabbed his bag from beneath the hall table. "Claire already outside?" His class ring flashed under the hall light as he tugged his backpack onto his shoulder. At his mother's nod, he waved one last time and ran through the front door.

"Emma Kate Salvatore!" Elena placed her hand on the bannister of the stairs. "You have exactly thirty seconds, or we're leaving without you." She stepped away from the stairwell and bent to straighten the bow in her youngest daughter's hair.

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><p>Nathan leaned in his sister's doorway. "Em, she used your middle name. I'd hurry up." He watched as his sister applied sparkly pink lip gloss to her bottom lip.<p>

Emma capped the container and leaned forward to study her side ponytail. "Mom's not going to leave without me."

"Fifteen more seconds or you'll be walking to school." The alarm chirped as Elena's voice faded away.

Nathan sped out of the doorway. "Where are you going?" Emma called after her twin.

"I'm not walking." Nathan laughed as he grabbed his still-new backpack from where he'd left it outside her door. "Especially not because you want to look perfect for _Lo-gan._"

"Nathan!" She threw a stuffed pink rabbit out the door.

"I'm getting in the car." Elena called up one last warning.

The alarm chirped again downstairs. "Emma, Mommy says to get ready to walk." Lily's high voice echoed through the house.

"I'm coming!" The door slammed shut below. Emma sighed dramatically as she picked up her messenger bag.

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><p>"And what are we doing here?" Casen turned to Claire as she drove down the leaf-covered winding driveway.<p>

Claire shrugged her shoulders. "Whatever my aunt says I need to do." She stepped out of the car and pulled her jacket more tightly around her. "Have you ever been here?"

"The creepy house on the hill?" Casen pointed at the house. "Never."

"People think it's creepy?" Claire stared at the house, trying to imagine it as threatening. While no one from the family lived there any longer, it had hosted so many family gatherings and community events, she couldn't think of it any other way than an extension of her own house.

"Um, yeah." Casen walked alongside Claire as they dodged the falling leaves. "When I was little, we used to imagine ghosts or something living underneath in the cellar. All I can think of is cobwebs and spiders. Have you seen any skeletons?"

Claire glared at him out of the corner of her eye. "There's a basement, but I haven't seen any ghosts." She unlocked the front door and looked around in the darkness. "Ric? Jenna?" Turning back to look at Casen, she tapped her fingers on the door. "Guess we're the first ones here. Want the tour?"

Casen gave an evil grin. "We're actually alone?"

"I think so." Claire walked farther into the house. The hearth was cold, giving the room an empty feeling. She never remembered being here without a roaring fire - not even in the heat of the summer.

"Why don't you give me a tour of the basement? I'll bet it's dark...and quiet." He trailed a finger over the collar of her blouse.

Claire's cheeks flushed pink. A side effect of being the oldest of five was the fact that even when you were alone, you never really knew when someone would be running through the room you happened to be in. "Are you sure?" She tried to tease, but her voice came out breathier than she'd intended.

"I should be asking you that." He rested his forehead against hers.

"Well, it's this way." She took his hand and led him in the direction of the kitchen, fully aware of how fast her heart was pounding in her chest. Despite being nine months from graduating, up until recently, she'd had very little experience with the opposite sex - unless they were related to her. Always thought of as an overly bookish introvert, the boys in Mystic Falls tended to overlook her...until she won the Miss Mystic Falls pageant. Once they'd see her with her hair curled and spilling over her shoulders, drawing attention to the fact that there was much more to her than the ability to recite the periodic table from memory, she'd had her pick of the high school seniors.

And she'd selected Casen. After knowing each other since his family moved to town in the third grade, he'd always been at her side. For the past few months, friendship had gradually changed into something more, but they'd never moved farther than holding hands.

Flicking on a light switch, she carefully climbed down the stone steps. "Not much to see really." She turned in a circle in the midst of the room that seemed to be some type of storage area.

"Oh yes there is." Casen stepped closer to her and wrapped his hands low around her waist, resting his palms on the pockets of her jeans. Slowly, he lowered his face to meet hers and his lips were surprisingly soft at first. As he deepened the kiss, she felt his tongue skim across her upper lip, demanding entrance in her mouth as his fingertips skimmed the waistband of the back of her jeans.

Claire hesitantly opened her lips and was taken aback at the sensation of some else's tongue exploring her mouth. She felt the corners of his lips turn up in a grin as she tentatively began her own exploration of the slickness of his teeth.

Her breath caught in her chest as he pulled up the back of her shirt so he could rest his palm against the small of her back.

"Too fast?" His fingers taunted with the skin below the waistline of her jeans.

Claire blinked in surprise at the unexpected feelings, both in her chest and far lower down. She shifted in place at the dampness she couldn't control. Her deep green eyes looked into his brown ones. "Not at all." She sighed into his kiss as his hand plunged deeper and cupped beneath her jeans, not quite daring enough to penetrate the thin cotton of her underwear.

"Claire?" The door to the basement thudded open, and Alaric began to make his descent down the stairwell. Claire hastily pulled away and began to rearrange her shirt, but she didn't quite make it in time.

"Uncle Ric." She blinked as she backed into a storage shelf, sending a handful of boxes tumbling to the floor. "Mom said it was ok to bring Casen."

"I'm sure she did. He's always been pretty handy." Alaric gave her a knowing look. "I've been calling you for five minutes. I guess you've been...busy."

Claire bent to pick up the contents of the first box. "I was giving him a tour."

"Looked like a very _private _one." He inclined his head to Casen. "Clean that up. Your aunt has the chairs ready to set out."

"We'll be right up, Uncle Ric." Claire knelt down and tossed a photo album in the cardboard box.

"Leave the door open." Alaric's shoulders shook with laughter as he made his way back up the stairs.

Casen gave her a guilty smile. "Sorry about that." He handed her a stack of papers.

Shaking her head, Claire let out a long sigh. "It's impossible to keep a secret in this family." She reached for a leather-bound book and picked it up. The glue had loosened with age, and the handwritten pages rained onto the floor. "Ugh!" She scooped them into a pile.

"What is that?"

She picked up a page. At the top, the date _September 12, 1887_ was written in a neat script. "Some of Aunt Jenna's historical stuff, I think. I'm going to be so dead."

"No you're not." He gathered the pages and slid them into his jacket pocket. "We'll just stick them in your backpack. You can put them back in order tonight, and I'll sneak them back into the box tomorrow before the wedding."

"Thank you." She smiled in anticipation as he leaned in closer to her once again.

He traced the outline of her jaw with the pad of his thumb. "That's what I'm here for."


	2. Chapter 2

Author's note: Sorry, everyone, I never intended to go this long without updating this one. I'll be honest. The "ripper Stefan" storyline really through me for an unexpected loop. I had trouble reconciling the Stefan of "Bittersweet" with the Stefan who has emerged on TVD...and that kind of ties into this chapter of the story.

I'll try to do a short summary of chapter one (although I recommend just going ahead and rereading it - it's pretty short).

Claire's a high school senior. Jackson's getting married. While helping get the boardinghouse wedding-ready, Claire and her boyfriend spend some time in the basement - where they discover an old journal. After accidentally knocking it to the floor, it falls apart, and Claire sneaks it home to repair it.

Warnings: Mature - adult content, sensitive subject matter, character death, language, violence

I still don't own TVD.

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><p>Claire could feel her mother's steely glare burrowing through the back of her head. When she'd seen Uncle Ric standing in the kitchen with her mother, a prickling of fear ran up her spine. As her mother's lips formed a thin, tight line, she'd had no doubt what her uncle was discussing...at least he'd waited until most of the family was gone...although having a crowd of witnesses might have made it safer for Claire and Casen.<p>

Poor Casen. After a scarcely-whispered conversation between her parents, Casen disappeared into the night after her father offered to drive him home. Her boyfriend might only live a few streets over from the boardinghouse, but she knew from experience that Damon knew how to make every second count - and she didn't mean that in a good way.

"Upstairs." The door thudded closed with the same finality as a jail cell. Elena eyed the youngest members of her family and pointed at the stairwell. "Not you." She positioned herself between the stairs and Claire.

"Mommy, you said we could have a snack." Lily twirled a braid around her finger.

Nathan nodded as he stepped behind his younger sister. "Yeah, I'm not sure what Aunt Jenna fixed for dinner."

"_Later_." Elena reached out and took hold of Lily's shoulder and began to propel the youngest member of the family up the stairs. Brayden and Emma cringed down at their sister and mother facing off below them.

"Come on, Lily." Emma motioned for her sister to follow her up the stairwell. "I think I have a box of granola bars in my room left over from the slumber party." She gave her older sister a sympathetic glance as she pulled Lily behind her up the stairs.

Elena's expression became more stony as her youngest children disappeared from view. Taking a deep breath, the only sounds in the house were the shuffling mix of footsteps on the hardwood upstairs. "Close the doors." She called up after the majority of her brood and waited for the answering clicks. "All of them." She exhaled loudly as the third door shut completely. Only then did she fully turn her attention to Claire. "Exactly what did you think you were doing?"

"We thought we were alone." Claire crossed her arms in front of her chest as her cheeks flushed a pale pink.

"_Obviously_." Elena shook her head slowly as she ran her fingers through her hair. Claire knew that was never a good sign and braced herself for the coming tirade. "We trusted you." Elena's eyes were troubled as they fell on Claire. "That's why we let you invite Casen to help."

"I thought you just wanted more free labor." Claire rolled her eyes. "I can't believe Uncle Ric told you."

"Of course he did." Elena's voice grew louder. "Do you know what kind of awkward situation you put him in? Do you think he wanted to walk in on that?" She took a step closer to her daughter and her voice fell. "Casen had his hands down your jeans. Really, Claire? You were setting up for your cousin's wedding...and you decided to do _that?"_

"It's not like you haven't done worse." Claire's green eyes flashed with the temper she'd inherited from her mother. Her voice carried up the stairs and through the closed front door. "I can add, mom. Braydon wasn't a preemie. How long did you wait to sleep with Damon after my dad died?" She gritted her teeth and took a handful of steps backward. "Oh yeah...I know all about that. Trust me. Mrs. Lockwood talks a lot when she's had a few drinks. The ladies on the Miss Mystic Falls judging panel still have a lot to say about my _complicated _family. You're trying to get me to feel bad about what I did with Casen during one of the only times I'm not being suffocated by this family. Everywhere I look, someone's always around. I had a chance to be alone with my boyfriend, and I took it. I don't care how awkward that was for Uncle Ric." Claire bit down on her lip. "Don't talk to me about what I was doing with Casen when I know what you were doing with my uncle before grass even had a chance to grow on my dad's grave."

"That's enough." Damon stepped into the room after arriving home and pulling the car into the garage on the side of the house. The two women were so intent on their exchange, they hadn't heard the door close. "Claire. I think it's time for you to go to your room now."

Claire turned to Damon. "I...um..."

"I said go to your room." Damon stared his step-daughter down as he motioned up the stairs. "And make yourself comfortable because you won't be stepping a foot outside the door until tomorrow."

Giving one last huff of indignation, Claire reached down and scooped up her bag before climbing the stairs.

As the slamming of her bedroom door threatened to knock the array of family pictures from the wall, Elena stiffened as she took a step toward the stairs.

Damon caught hold of her shoulder and held her in place. "I guess that answers the question...definitely nature."

Wrinkling her brow back at him, Elena narrowed her eyes and gave a faint shake of her head. "What?"

"Nature versus nurture." He stared at the ceiling as if he could see into their oldest child's room. "She definitely gets that from her father. No one else could shove a knife in exactly where it hurts more than my brother."

"Damon..." Elena's voice softened as she betrayed the faintest hint of sadness that occasionally broke through after a mention of her first husband.

"I'm sorry." He stepped behind his wife and wrapped his arms around her waist as he rested his chin on her shoulder. "We both loved him, but it's still true. He had a way with words - especially when he was angry. The older she gets, the more I see Stefan in her."

"I know." Elena tried to steady her breathing. "I didn't know anyone had said something like that to her." She pushed a section of hair behind her ear, a telltale sign of how much the confrontation with her daughter had just unnerved her. "I wish she told me when it happened. That must have been eating at her for quite a while, but it doesn't excuse what they were doing tonight."

"It's Mystic Falls." Damon placed a light kiss on her collarbone. "And you know what Carol's like once she's had a few." He scooped her hair up and slid it over her shoulder to allow him better access to the back of her neck. His kisses followed the path his fingertips traced as he slid the back of her collar down. "I talked with Casen. He knows he's not coming to the wedding tomorrow."

Elena wasn't buying it. She could still feel the tension in his fingertips as he tried to distract her from the disaster of the past few minutes. "I need to talk to her." She shrugged out from beneath him and resumed her earlier attempt to go talk with Claire.

"Not yet." He stopped her in her quest once again. "Give her a few minutes." He did his eye thing for her - once such a part of him, but now saved for the moments he most needed her attention. "We all need to calm down unless we want bloodshed - or a visit from Sheriff Donovan. She's probably up there texting Casen...complaining that we're hypocrites and planning to elope or something equally dramatic."

Elena chuckled softly at his words. Dropping her head to his chest, she realized she was defeated.

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><p>"Go to your room." Claire flung her bag onto her unmade bed. "He's not even my real dad. He's not the one who should be ordering me around." Her phone buzzed in her pocket but she ignored it. Casen was the reason she was in this mess. She wasn't even sure why they were doing <em>that <em>in the basement anyway. She hadn't even _really_ kissed anyone before, surely Blaine Lockwood back in third grade didn't count, and then they were doing _that. _Her stomach rolled uncomfortably as she thought back to the feeling of his hands exploring her. She'd said yes, but now... Closing her eyes, she swallowed thickly. Desperate for a distraction, she turned back to look at her bag. Of course, this would be the one weekend in recent memory that she had absolutely no homework. Still, maybe she could get ahead on her French vocabulary.

Taking a seat on the bed, she reached for her bag and dumped the contents out on top of the rumpled sheets. Only as unfamiliar yellowed pages rained down and covered the bed did she remember the book she'd smuggled out of the boardinghouse. Frowning, she realized she'd just gotten all the pages out of order. What should have been a simple fix would now take the majority of the evening. At least she didn't have anything else to do...thanks to Casen.

Claire took a quick glance toward the doorway as she heard voices on the stairwell. The last thing she needed was one of her parents coming in and discovering she'd damaged a piece of Mystic Falls history. Gah! The way this town preserved its past, you'd think it was the key to keeping Armageddon from happening.

The voices faded as the sound of running water came through the pipes. Damon was trying to distract her mom.

She leaned back against the headboard and tilted her head. When had she stopped calling him dad? Her upset stomach grew in intensity as she thought back to that afternoon during the Miss Mystic Falls pageant.

She knew when.

Carol Lockwood, Liz Forbes, and a handful of other women were sipping sangria while watching the young ladies borne of Mystic Falls' oldest families practicing their entrance into the courtyard. One pitcher sat empty - only red-tinged oranges left littering the bottom of the glass - giving evidence as to just how much they'd all had to drink.

As she'd passed in front of Mrs. Lockwood, the older woman let out a stage whisper. "She looks just like him. I don't see how Damon can stand it." The other women's nervous laughter betrayed the truth of Carol's statement.

Claire pushed a curly tendril of hair behind her ear as she looked up at her mirror. Hair the undefinable color somewhere between blonde and brown. Eyes the blazing green of the evergreens in deepest winter. As she glanced down at the picture on her nightstand, she knew Carol Lockwood told the truth. Nowhere did she see even a hint of her mother in her appearance. While her other siblings were a mix between Damon and her mother, and Emma was truly a dead ringer for the childhood pictures of Elena, Claire knew her appearance had to be a daily reminder that she was different. She belonged to a dad she never knew.

"Lily, you ready for your bath?" Damon's voice echoed in the hall bathroom.

"Can I have bubbles?" Lily squeaked as she must have joined her father in the hall.

Damon gave a soft laugh. "Why don't you ask Emma if you can borrow some of hers? You finished the bottle of Strawberry Shortcake bubble bath last week." His heavy footfalls came close to Claire's door and stopped just before they reached her room.

What was she doing? She snapped out of the trip down memory lane and stared down at the mess of aged paper in front of her. Thankfully, the author had been careful to note the exact day of each entry.

_January 7, 1888_

_March 21, 1888_

_May 1, 1888_

Collecting the pages into a pile on her lap, she placed the pages in chronological order, paying little attention to what was written in the journal. This wasn't too bad...of course, it wasn't too bad until he decided to get wordy and not put a date on a page.

_but still I struggle. I'm afraid Lexi senses it. Ever since that night, she is reluctant to let me stray too far from her side._

_I've tried to convince her it was a mistake. In the midst of the harsh winter, the animals had become scarce, and I hadn't been feeding as often as I'd become accustomed to._

_Lexi had matters to attend to in New Orleans, and I'd been doing so well for so long that we both were assured I would be safe being left behind for a few days. Even after her careful ministrations, it was still simpler if I didn't accompany her into into the crowds we both knew to expect leading up to Mardi Gras. _

_Neither of us expected the unseasonably late blizzard to delay her return. _

Dude...please get on with this. Claire's eyes scanned the page to try to decide where it should go. Since he was talking about a blizzard, maybe she could just stick it in the middle of the winter pages and no one would know the difference. Flipping the page over, she gave it one quick scan before she froze.

"_Stefan! What are you doing?" I can still feel the warmth of the girl's blood running down my chin...I can see it shining scarlet on my hands. Lexi was able to disguise the body as an unfortunate horseback riding accident, but I knew the truth._

_I, Stefan Salvatore, would never be anything other than a monster. _

_And Lexi knows that truth to be as certain as well. _

Claire blinked at the page.

Blood dripping from his chin? Blood staining _Stefan Salvatore's _hands?

Surely this was some kind of sick coincidence. When she'd stumbled upon the signature page from the first Founder's Ball, Damon had told her his family liked to use family names.

That had to explain it...but it didn't keep the chill from running down her spine.

Whoever this was..._whatever _this was - it was a monster. He _drank _someone's blood.

Suddenly not caring about preserving the past, she threw the pages across the room, her heart thudding in her chest as a photograph she hadn't noticed earlier fluttered slowly to the floor.

Not wanting to look too closely but unable to keep herself away from it, she slowly approached the time-worn photograph. Her knees threatened to buckle beneath her as the eyes of her father looked up at her.

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><p>Elena ran the brush through her hair as she stood from her perch on the edge of the bed. As was typical because of her unpredictable schedule, Damon had supervised the majority of the night time routine. Tonight it had nothing to do with Elena being out of town. He'd simply wanted to give Elena a chance to calm down before she spoke with Claire. "Think we've given her long enough?" Elena glanced up at Damon as he entered the room.<p>

Damon smirked as he fought to ignore the fact his wife was wearing his favorite midnight-blue dressing gown. If they survived the next few minutes, then he could think about some type of _celebration. _"Just remember, if you wake them up...you get to put them all back in bed." He slid a hand down the back of Elena's silken dressing gown as she walked past him. "You sure you don't want me in the conversation too?"

"No." Her lips formed a tight line. "I think this is a mother-daughter moment."

His eyes widened with amusement. "Good luck with that." Damon turned and walked toward his closet as Elena made her way to Claire's room. He'd only succeeded in unbuttoning the first two buttons of his shirt before a panicked Elena flew back into the room.

"Damon!" Elena's eyes were filled with a fear he hadn't seen in years. "Claire's gone."


End file.
